"Was that it?" Sirius asked as I put my tongue back in my mouth.

"Well, yes?" I replied, raising an eyebrow. "It was just my Hogwarts letter, nothing more."

Sirius pouted.

"I've been cheated!" he declared and thumped his fists childishly on the table. "Want more!"

Just then my stomach decided to rumble embarrassingly. It was loud.

"After we feed her," Remus said firmly.

Another rumble came and it wasn't from me. Remus blushed. It was kind of cute.

"And me," he added needlessly.

Sirius shrugged, waving his hands at the cupboards.

"Go ahead," he said, settling back with his own coffee.

Remus frowned at him, "What do you want?"

Sirius stayed quiet and took a long sip.

Remus' frowned deepened.

"You need to eat something."

"I'm fine, Moony. I'll grab something later."

"You can't be skipping meals. You need the nutrients."

"It's only breakfast," Sirius retorted. "I eat lunch and dinner."

"You should be eating those and regular snacks."

"Yes, mother."

This sounded like a very common argument between the two. Though, Remus brought up a good point. Sirius was malnourished, it happened to all long-term Azkaban inmates and he really needed a diet plan or something, not that he could get that when in hiding. Regular meals were the next best thing.

I decided to butt in before it got too heated, too early for that.

"It'll make you big and strong," I said mockingly, waving cereal under his nose.

Sirius snorted at me but there was a small smile on his face. Yes, score one for Tonks.

"Just a piece of toast," Remus coaxed.

"Oh, okay," Sirius sighed, pulling a piece towards him from the stack Remus put in the middle of the table.

"So, how was the rest of your birthday?" Remus asked me when we were halfway through eating.

"It was good. Plenty of cake and got some nice gifts. Got CDs and a new bike. Nothing beat the letter, though."

Sirius and Remus nodded knowingly.

"I was more excited about the promised trip to Diagon for my supplies," I continued.

2nd July 1984

"Come on," Dora whined, bouncing up and down at the front door.

"In a moment, Nymphadora. Your father seems to be unable to find a matching jumper."

"Dear, I can wear the red one."

"Ted, you're wearing a shirt with an orange pinstripe. No."

"It's a thin line..."

"Still no."

Dora tried to be patient; she really did! But her parents were taking forever. It had been hours since mum said to get ready. Well, twenty minutes. But still! This wasn't a mere ingredients errand, there were school supplies to get!

"Hurry up!" she shouted.

"Nymphadora!" mum scolded as she and dad traipsed down the stairs.

"Sorry" she muttered before turning on the puppy dog eyes, "Pleeeease?"

Andromeda just snorted and shook her head as Ted chuckled.

"Aw, she's just excited," said Ted, ruffling her hair.

Dora noticed that he was wearing a dark brown jumper. Looked like mum won the fashion argument. It was a pretty colour; she changed her hair to match it.

Mum smiled at them both a grabbed her handbag.

"All ready?" she checked.

"Yes!"

"You're apparating with your mother," Ted instructed as they left the house so her parents could apparate from a side street.

Two quiet pops later, and a brief stumble around from a disorientated Dora, they arrived just outside the Leaky Cauldron.

Seizing her mother's hand, Dora dragged her into the pub. Thankfully, being so early in the day but before lunch, it was pretty much empty. No one to bump into or be polite to. Perfect.

"Morning, Tom, " Ted greeted as they all but barged past.

"Andromeda, Ted," the bartender responded with a nod. "Hogwarts trip?"

"That obvious?" Andromeda asked sarcastically but indulgently allowed Dora to continue.

It didn't take long for them to be at the brick wall.

"Hurry up!" Dora said insistently.

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe we should grab a bite to eat first..."

"Daddy!"

"Okay, okay, hold your hippogriffs, " Ted responded as he drew out his wand and tapped the appropriate bricks.

"Next year I'll be doing that," Dora informed them as the bricks drew back to reveal the bustling street.

Not bothering to take anything in, it was Diagon Alley - nothing ever changed, Dora headed straight for Ollivander's.

"Don't you want to get your ingredients first?"

Dora scrunched up her nose, "Daddy!"

"Oh, stop teasing her, Ted," Andromeda sighed, shaking her hand to regain feeling in it and then turning to her daughter. "Of course, we're getting your wand first."

"Yay!"

She ran over to the door and pushed it open with a CRASH as it hit the wall. Oops. She peered hesitantly around the corner, making her hair dark in attempt to blend in with the door.

"Ah, the Tonks'," came a really creepy voice from the shelves.

"Mr Ollivander," Andromeda said briskly, ushering Dora into the shop.

Dora felt the urge to run and hide behind her mother. It was like walking into a library here, all the outside noises just disappeared. Spooky. She liked it.

This shop was so cool. So many boxes, so many unclaimed wands. She could practically feel the magic running through here.

Oops, Ollivander was talking above her.

"Very good for healing," he was just telling her father before peering down his nose at her. "This must be young Nymphadora."

Her hair flashed red at that as she tried hard not to pull a face. Mum's hands squeezing her shoulders in warning helped too.

"Ah, yes. The metamorphmagus," he said as if he were commenting on the weather.

That was a nice change. People stared too much.

Ollivander suddenly clapped his hands and a tape measure whipped out from behind him. It was floating! It swept around her taking the most ridiculous of measurements (why did it need to know the space between her eyebrows?) and tapped her sharply on the head when she obnoxiously morphed her facial features.

"Behave!" Ollivander and mum said together and Dora could have sworn that it positioned itself guiltily as she apologised.

The old wand-maker rummaged through the shelves and came back with a few boxes.

Yes! This was the moment she'd been waiting for.

"Give it a flick," he instructed, passing her one.

She eagerly grasped it and it felt weird in her hands. Like her magic was trying to mesh with it. Ollivander almost immediately yanked it back.

"Should have known. Ash is too polite," he muttered, passing her another. "Phoenix feather and red oak. Very handsome."

This time she got to wave it and a box exploded.

"Cool," she breathed but Ollivander was shaking his head.

"Sycamore and dragon heartstring of a protective Welsh Green."

It felt kind of weird in her hand, a bit jumpy.

"No, no, of course not," and another was thrust at her.

"Ebony and Griffin feather, hmm, nearly right," he said to her doing absolutely nothing with it.

Dora was getting tired. Surely, it shouldn't take this long to get a wand!

She huffed and grabbed the next one, not even listening to Ollivander anymore. Before she could even wave it, a warmth spread down her arm and made her fingers tingle. Coloured sparkles erupted from the tip.

She gasped loudly in wonderment. She did that?

Ollivander looked extremely pleased with himself.

"Ebony with a core of unicorn tail hair of a feisty female of about three years. Perfect for a girl who is non-conformist and holds fast to her beliefs."

"Sounds like my daughter," Andromeda sighed but smiled.

They quickly finished up the sale, getting polish and a holster for good measure. Dora ignored all of this to just stare at her wand in awe. But it had to be put in its box and then in a bag.

The rest of the shopping trip went by without a hitch. Nearly. Dora didn't exactly count the small avalanche of textbooks that she caused something out of the ordinary. She helped restack them! The assistant didn't have to be so grumpy with her!

Robes and uniform were next. Dora tried not to complain too much about having to wear a skirt. She held very still while everything was getting pinned, having learnt that the more she wiggled the longer they'd be there. Yuck, who wanted to spend all day in a robes shop? Thankfully they got the clothes with minimal fuss, except for shoes. Mum liked the school shoes in Clarkes better so they'd have to go to the muggle world for that. Dora couldn't wait to see what colour the stripes on her tie and the edging on the jumper would change to!

Getting ingredients was never fun. The whole place reeked even though the dead bugs looked cool. Mum made sure that she got extras of everything, explaining that she was going to make mistakes because first year potions were more complex than the ones she had been teaching Dora. It was because her magic was more stable or something. It was better to have extras from the start.

Of course, they finished up the whole trip at Fortescue's. It wasn't a shopping trip without ice-cream. There were loads of other students there too, surrounded by bags just like them. Maybe some of them would be in her house?

"I'd say that was a good day," Ted announced, happily licking up the last of his peanut butter fudge.

"We just need shoes and that's that," Andromeda concurred, crossing items off her list.

"At least you got everything in one trip," Remus said, laughing. "Me and my parents were so amazed by it that we had to go back twice more because of forgotten equipment."

"I don't think anyone can be unorganised with mum at the helm," I joked.

"So true," Sirius affirmed with a grin. "You should have seen her with my OWL revision notes.

"That's why you didn't need my help that year?" Remus asked with a gasp.

"You didn't think I did it, did you?"

AN: Remember, any reviews get a sneaky preview of the next chapter!